The main aim of this blog is to interpret the Christian Order in the light of current affairs, philosophy, literature and the arts -- and vice versa. So it's about ideas. Social, political and religious comment. Links, notes on people, places, events, books, movies etc.
And mainly a place where I can post half-baked ideas in the hope that other people, or the passing of time, will help me to bake them.

23 December 2009

SEATTLE -- A federal appeals court ordered Microsoft Corp. to stop selling its Word program in January and pay a Canadian software company $290 million for violating a patent, upholding the judgment of a lower court.

But people looking to buy Word or Microsoft's Office package in the U.S. won't have to go without the software. Microsoft said Tuesday it expects that new versions of the product, with the computer code in question removed, will be ready for sale when the injunction begins on Jan. 11.

Under the ruling, Davis found that anything that touches custom XML formatting in Word infringes on i4i’s patent.

If this is a true statement, it means that i4i could use this ruling as leverage to demand licensing fees from and sue the maker of any word processor that works with XML files. Dignan notes this and even asks i4i if they plan to pursue lawsuits with any other companies. So this is good reason for even OpenOffice lovers to be concerned. Unless OpenOffice is going to forego ever doing much with XML.

I'll also note that I disagree with the judges ruling as a software engineer. The patent describes a rather specific algorithm (in that sense, I disagree with Dignan), and I think any company could come up with a significantly different algorithm to work with custom XML, which would prevent it from being a violation of this patent. But then, my word won't hold weight in court for the next lawsuit. The judge's ruling will. So I do hope that the ruling is challenged further just on the grounds that what qualifies as a legitimate violation of this patent needs to be narrowed down.

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New Religious Movements

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